In this essay i will be talking about the theme of deception portrayed in William Shakespeare's play 'King Lear'.
The theme of deception is central in 'King Lear'from a number of characters.From the very beginning of the play we can see the early signs of deception among King Lear' family. At the beginning of the first scene in the play(Act 1,Scene 1), King Lear decides to retire as king and give all of his responsibility to his daughters Regan, Goneril and Cordelia, but in order for them to be gain his wealth and power, they must tell him how much they love him."Which of you shall we say doth love us most?" The theme of deception comes into play here. Both Regan and Goneril both deceive him by telling him how much they love him just so they an be wealthy. His favourite daughter refuses to deceive him because she is honest,"So young my Lord,and true". .In result to this, he strips her of all her values and banishes her.
In Act 2, Scene 2, We encounter the first time Edmund deceives a family member, someone who you are supposed to be honest with at all times. Edmund deceives Edgar by telling him that he's in trouble and that he must flee. "Fly brother".Edgar being the gullible as he is, he believes his brothers lie and leaves.Right after Edmund deceives his father. He deceives him by cutting himself with his own sword pretending that it was his brother Edgar who had drawn his sword on him."Look, sir, I bleed!".
Gloucester believes his lies and is also deceived. He decides to go after Edgar with no proof that it was actually Edgar who had done it."Let him fly far". By Edgar being able to deceive his own family members so easily, he'd have no problem deceiving other members of the household to get what he wants.
Another case where we can clearly see the theme of deception is between Gloucester and Edmund.Gloucester has two sons, Edmund and Edgar. Edgar is the favourite son and Edmund doesn't like that. He is treated differently than Edgar who is favored by his father and destined to take his father's place."Lag of a brother?","Why bastard?"This resulted in him making a huge plan to take over England and be in power. He first deceived his father (Act 1, Scene 2), with a fake letter wishing to remove Gloucester from his place. Edmund deceived his father saying that it was his older brother Edgar had wrote letter. Gloucester believes him without question and instantly turns his back on him."There's son against father".Gloucester did not trust his own son and investigate for himself if he had supposedly done so.The way he comes around this problem causes him his own sight. If he'd not been easily been deceived by Edmund he wouldn't have to face the horrific consequences in the end.
Both Kent and Edgar both deceives others in the play. Kent disguises himself as a poor fellow so he can be a servant to King Lear again and Edgar deceives others by taking on the disguise of 'Poor Tom' so he too can hide being caught by his father. Kent deceives Lear by pretending to be a low class worker in Act 1, Scene 4. Kent explains to Lear what he can do for him."I am qualified in, and the best of me is diligence". Lear is satisfies with Kent and decides to hire him as a servant. Kent had successfully deceived Lear. Lear here can be seen as a gullible man which soon comes around to bite him in the end because of his choices.He is constantly deceived throughout the play by people most closest to him.
On the other hand, Edgar hides away and decides to deceive his father by disguising himself as a mad beggar 'Poor Tom' in Act 2, Scene 3".He transforms himself to 'Poor Tom' at the woods near his Gloucester's castle after being deceived by his brother Edmund. Edmund knew that the guards after him would not wait to arrest him."Does not attend my taking". He begins to 'preserve' himself from his father's guards after him. He chose to deceive his father by taking form of a mad man in a poor and filthy state to make his disguise more believable and more unrecognizable."To take basest and most poorest shape","My face I'll grime with filth". Edgar is put through the stress of hiding and disguising himself away from everyone because of his brother Edmund. Since Edmund deceived his father to go against his brother. Edgar is no longer safe around his own family as one should b, but you can also argue that it's his fault for having to go through this mess because he was so easily deceived by Edmund.
COMPARISON BETWEEN 'PRIDE' & 'KING LEAR'
Both 'King Lear' and the movie 'Pride' deal with the theme of deception. In Pride the movie focuses around the life of Joe and his friends who are part of the LGBTQ community. Like in 'King Lear' Joe deceives his parents just like how Regan and Goneril deceived their father to gain power and status. Joe deceives his parents quite often to protect himself from hate and disgrace.Joe's parents do not know about Joe being part of the fundraising group 'Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners'. He deceives his parents by telling them he's doing a culinary course in college when he's actually out with the LGSM support group. Joe only deceived his parents to save him from the harsh words his father would pour upon him.Joe deceived his parents because he was afraid of how others close to him would react towards him if he comes out as a gay man. A similar case happens between King Lear when he asks his daughters to profess their love to him in exchange for wealth and higher status, both Regan and Goneril use this opportunity to get what they want, just like what Joe did. If comparing the reasons as to why Joe and King Lear's two daughters deceived their parents, we feel more sympathetic towards Joe more rather than the two sisters. Joe deceived his parents cause he was afraid on how they'd react if they found out he was a gay man. He wasn't ready to face that yet. Whereas in 'King Lear, both sisters deceive Lear out of selfishness and greed causing the audience to portray the sisters as unloving and uncaring.
Silas Marner
Both 'King Lear' and 'Silas Marner' are both deceived because of money you could say.In Silas Marner we first see the theme of deception when Silas' 'William Dane' deceives the church community after framing Silas as the thief of the congregation money and like in 'King Lear' both Goneril and Regan deceive their father for money (wealth).He deceived Silas and the church to get what he wanted which was Silas' fiance Sarah. He was jealous of Silas. Like we see in 'King Lear' the sisters deceive their father by expressing how much they love him when they really don't but do it to get what they want from their dad which was money and a higher status whereas in 'Pride' we could also agree that Joe deceived his parents about him going into culinary school in return of him getting what he wants which would be happiness. He was happy being himself with the LGSM group because he could express himself to the fullest. Godfrey also deceives his family about him having a family, just like 'King Lear', we can say that there is a common theme of deception within a family. Both cases deceive their parents and siblings. Godfrey deceives his family thinking that he'd start a new family with Nancy Lammeter when he already had a family with another woman, Molly Farren and his child Eppie. This later comes and bites him later since he disregarded Eppie as his own child only to soon realise that his new wife Nancy was not able to have children.
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